Boğaziçi University (),ğaziç also known as Bosphorus University, is a major research university in Istanbul, Turkey. Its main campus is located on the European side of the Bosphorus strait. It has six faculties and two schools offering undergraduate degrees, and six institutes offering graduate degrees. Traditionally, the language of instruction is English.
Founded in 1863, as Robert College, it was the first American higher education institution founded outside the United States. Though under Turkish administration today, the university still maintains strong ties to the American educational system.
Boğaziçi University consistently ranks as Turkey's top university and has the greatest number of applicants via the Turkish university entrance examinations, making it the most selective university in Turkey.
History
In 1863, Robert College was founded in Bebek by Christopher Robert, a wealthy American philanthropist, and Cyrus Hamlin, a Congregational missionary devoted to education. Six years after its foundation, the first campus (the current-day Boğaziçi South Campus) was built on the ridge near Rumeli Hisarı (the Rumelian Castle) with the permission of Sultan Abdulaziz.
According to a college catalogue compiled for the 1878–1879 academic year, "the object of the College is to give to its students, without distinction of race or religion, a thorough education equal in all respects to that obtained at a first-class American college and based upon the same general principles."
After Cyrus Hamlin, the college was administered by George Washburn (1877–1903) and Caleb Gates (1903–1932). The college, which was established as an institution of higher learning independent of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) yet holding a significant number of missionaries among its faculty in its earlier years, adopted an entirely secular and non-denominational educational model in 1923 in compliance with the new republican principles of Turkey.
Before 1971, Robert College, had junior high school, high school, and university sections under the names Robert Academy, Robert College, and Robert College Yüksek (Yüksek" meaning "high" in Turkish). In 1971, the Bebek campus and academic staff of Robert College were turned over to the Republic of Turkey to be transformed into a public university named Boğaziçi University, the renamed continuation of Robert College's university section (i.e. Robert College Yüksek). The rest of Robert College moved into the Arnavutköy campus of the American College for Girls; despite continuing to call itself a college it became merely a high school."
In the fall of 1971, Boğaziçi University started its first academic year with former faculty and students of Robert College Yüksek as well as a new cohort of freshman students. Aptullah Kuran, the former vice-president of Robert College Yüksek, was the founding rector of the university. Since then, the university has gradually transformed from a small liberal arts college into a major research university.
In early 2021, the university received a lot of media attention, after the Turkish government appointed a new rector, a post traditionally filled after a democratic election within the university. Students protested against the curtailment of academic freedom. More than 150 students were detained. The new rector dismissed the earlier faculty deans to appoint himself or candidates from outside the university to their positions.
Campus
thumb|Boğaziçi University South Campus Washburn HallBoğaziçi University operates on six campuses in Istanbul. Four of these campuses (South Campus, North Campus, Hisar Campus, and Uçaksavar Campus) are within walking distance to each other on a hill above the affluent district of Bebek on the European side of Istanbul, overlooking the Bosphorus (hence the name).
The South Campus is considered to be the most popular Boğaziçi University Campus. It houses various historic buildings of Robert College, including Hamlin, Washburn, Theodorus, Dodge, Albert Long and Anderson Halls as well as the Kennedy Lodge, named after John F. Kennedy, and currently serving as a welcoming facility for visiting professors and staff.
The North Campus is home to Aptullah Kuran Library, which contains more than 740,000 printed books, 800,000 e-books, 55,000 e-journals as well as an extensive collection of Braille books, and a collection of rare books and manuscripts.
The Kandilli Campus is on the opposite side of the Bosphorus in Çengelköy, and hosts the historic Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI).